DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Discussion #1.William James' Ideas

Explore two of William James' ideas that you found interesting.

· State each idea clearly and explain what you think it means.

· Describe what you found interesting about your selections.

o What effects might they have?

o What function might they serve, or, in James' terms, what is their cash value?

Discussion #2.Structuralism and Functionalism

Discuss and differentiate between structuralism and functionalism. Consider the contributions of Wundt, Titchener, and James. How did these early schools of thought influence the development of psychology?

Stock Valuation And Analysis

Purpose of Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to allow students the opportunity to research a Fortune 500 company stock using the popular online research tool Yahoo Finance. The tool allows the student to review analyst reports and other key financial information necessary to evaluate the stock value and make an educated decision on whether to invest. 

Assignment Steps 

Resources: Yahoo Finance 

Select a Fortune 500 Company from one of the following industries:

• Pharmaceutical
• Energy
• Retail
• Automotive
• Computer Hardware
• Manufacturing
• Mining

Access Yahoo Finance and enter the company name. 

Review the financial information and statistics provided for the stock you selected and answer the following:

• What is the ticker symbol of the company you chose?
• What is the Current Stock Price?
• What is the Market Cap for the stock you chose?
• What is the Price to Earnings Ratio?
• What is the Dividend and Yield?
• What is the Enterprise Value?
• What is the Beta?
• Was there a Stock Split, and if so, when?
• What was the closing stock price for the last 5 days?
• What was the 52 Week High for this stock?
• What is the Book Value per Share?
• What type of rating are analysts recommending (i.e. buy, hold, etc.)?
• What is the target price analysts are predicting for this stock?
• What is the analyst's average revenue estimate for next year?
• What are some of the significant news items and press releases made by the company over the last year? 

Explain in 700 words why you would or would not recommend investing in this stock.

• Describe the relationship between the value of the stock and the price to earnings ratio. 
• What information does the Market Capitalization (Market Cap) and Beta provide to the investor? 

Consumer Demand Analysis and Estimation Applied Problems

Consumer Demand Analysis and Estimation Applied Problems

Please complete the following two applied problems:
 

Problem 1: 
 

Patricia is researching venues for a restaurant business. She is evaluating three major attributes that she considers important in her choice: taste, location, and price. The value she places on each attribute, however, differs according to what type of restaurant she is going to start. If she opens a restaurant in a suburban area of Los Angeles, then taste is the most important attribute, three times as important as location, and two times as important as price. If she opens a restaurant in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, then location becomes three times as important as taste and two times as important as price. She is considering two venues, respectively, a steak restaurant and a pizza restaurant, both of which are priced the same. She has rated each attribute on a scale of 1 to 100 for each of the two different types of restaurants.

                    Steak Restaurant                  Pizza Restaurant   

Taste                           80                                             70
Location                    55                                             80
Price                            65                                             50

Show all of your calculations and processes. Describe your answer for each question in complete sentences.

1. Which of the two options should Patricia pursue if she wants to open a restaurant in a suburban area of Los Angeles? Calculate the total expected utility from each restaurant option and compare. Graph is not required. Describe your answer, and show your calculations.
2. Which of the two options should she pick if she plans to open a restaurant in the Los Angeles metropolitan area? Describe your answer, and show your calculations.
3. Which option should she pursue if the probability of finding a restaurant venue in a suburban area can be reliably estimated as 0.7 and in a metropolitan area as 0.3? Describe your reasoning and show your calculations.
4. Provide a description of a scenario in which this kind of decision between two choices, based on weighing their underlying attributes, applies in the “real-world” business setting. Furthermore, what are the benefits and drawbacks, if any, to this method of decision making?

Problem 2: 

The demand function for Newton’s Donuts has been estimated as follows:

Qx = -14 – 54Px + 45Py + 0.62Ax 

where Qx represents thousands of donuts; Px is the price per donut; Py is the average price per donut of other brands of donuts; and Ax represents thousands of dollars spent on advertising Newton’s Donuts. The current values of the independent variables are Ax=120, Px=0.95, and Py=0.64.

Show all of your calculations and processes. Describe your answer for each question in complete sentences, whenever it is necessary.

1. Calculate the price elasticity of demand for Newton’s Donuts and describe what it means. Describe your answer and show your calculations.
2. Derive an expression for the inverse demand curve for Newton’s Donuts. Describe your answer and show your calculations.
3. If the cost of producing Newton’s Donuts is constant at $0.15 per donut, should they reduce the price and thereafter, sell more donuts (assuming profit maximization is the company’s goal)?
4. Should Newton’s Donuts spend more on advertising?

Write your initial response in 300–500 words. Your response should be thorough and address all components of the discussion question in detail, include citations of all sources, where needed, according to the APA Style, and demonstrate accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation

Innovation Applied

 Innovation Applied" Please respond to the following: •Analyze the different approaches to innovation discussed in this chapter to determine which approach you think would be the greatest value to the greatest number of organizations. Explain your rationale. •Create one innovative approach that is not discussed in the textbook for increasing the amount of innovation within a large company. Describe this approach in detail and explain how companies could benefit from it. 

Skill

Develop an executive summary of your findings in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation format to present to Executive Management.

Develop a 10-12 slide presentation in PowerPoint format. 

Select a company with which you are familiar. The company should have a sales force and customer service division.  You are in charge of coming up with a customer satisfaction strategy to help the organization increase sales and customer satisfaction.  I will provide company.

Part 1  

Create a 1,050- to 1,400-word customer satisfaction strategy. In this strategy include the following: 

•Identify parts of the sales process that can result in improved or reduced customer satisfaction. 

•Examine the importance of follow up to the sales relationship. How does follow up help increase customer satisfaction? 

•Explain how the unhappy customer also presents opportunities within the sales process. 

•Determine the relationship of customer service and sales within the organization.  Does the relationship seem to support the customer?  Do sales and service appear to work together or is the relationship adversarial? 

•Recommend ways to change this relationship to improve customer satisfaction. •Discuss the ways this change to the service and sales relationship will benefit the organization as a whole.  

Part 2  

Create a script of no more than 350 words addressing unhappy customers. The cause of the unhappy customer is up to the team and can include more than one cause and the script(s) should include the following: 

•The script is a response to an unhappy customer. 

•The script includes an option for refunding or exchanging a product or service. •The script allows you to regain the customer's trust.

Business

Consumer behavior is the totality of consumer decisions with respect to acquisitions, consumption, and disposition of goods, services, and ideas by people over time. Provide an example to prove that it is important for marketers to understand that not all consumers respond to a product offering in the same way.

BUS 640 Managerial Economics Week 2 Dis 1

What is the marginal rate of substitution (MRS) and why does it diminish as the consumer substitutes one product for another? Use examples to illustrate.

Guided Response: In 300 words or more, please, provide your response to the above discussion question. Find two goods from your own consumption basket and explain how the MRS changes for the two products as you substitute one for the other.

Assignment 3: General Education Reflection Assignment

Assignment 3: General Education Reflection Assignment

In this assignment, you will prepare a reflection essay related to an area in General Education. The General Education program consisted of the broad set of courses  you completed prior to taking courses in your current program of study: for example, writing, social sciences, mathematics, natural sciences and humanities.  Our accreditor requires Argosy University to measure comprehension of General Education knowledge and skills in students near the point of graduation. 

The input you provide via this assignment will help us measure the effectiveness of our General Education to achieve targeted learning outcomes and will contribute to our efforts to always ensure we have relevant content in our General Education program.  In order to complete this assignment, you will write a reflection paper based on your experiences related to the following General Education program learning outcome:

Multicultural Knowledge and Competence  – Identify the cultural dimensions of human behavior at the individual and societal levels, and how their actions can be adjusted to impact local and global communities.

Reflection Paper
In a 1-page paper, address two out of the four items below. Include examples from your experiences, such as from past classes and assignments.

• Do you think that a working knowledge of the cultural dimensions of human behavior at the individual and societal levels can be beneficial in your chosen career path?  Explain your position.
• In what courses do you feel you received an effective exposure to content that helped to raise your awareness of multicultural issues and diversity?
• In what ways do you think it is appropriate to incorporate learning outcomes that focus on multicultural knowledge and competence in the General Education curriculum?
• Based on your educational experience, describe how the program helped to prepare you to identify the cultural dimensions of human behavior at the individual and societal levels.